New Centric Show Is Whoopi’s Reality

Whoopi Goldberg appeared Tuesday night at the Paley Center in New York to talk about According to Alex, a new reality show appearing on Centric starring her daughter Alex Martin Dean and Alex’s bestie Leisa Rachal.

“They’ve been friends for a long time. They make me laugh. I’d watch that,” said Goldberg, who is the show's executive producer.

“I don’t watch a lot of television, but television is starting to really irritate me. Women are smarter and black women are certainly smarter," Goldberg said.

Amid the laughs, According to Alex will show black women and families in a different light by depicting how they’ve raised their children and that their husband work, Goldberg said.

In the show, Dean and Rachal also are budding entrepreneurs. They're attempting to start a new business, Nail Buzz, which features a truck that will bring nail polishing and other pampering services to people’s homes. “It’s not just something we’re doing for the show,” Rachal said, adding that products are already available at nailbuzz.com

Centric is being positioned as the first cable channel for black women, a development that left Goldberg saying she felt bad. “I watch Lifetime. Was I not supposed to do that?”

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.